Siri’s…my other half’s…my story began with Robert Paglino. I sure wish those few TwenCen relics (God bless them) who still held to the notion that humankind was not to be tampered with had intervened for me when my parents decided to barbarically separate me from my body. Sure, they decided to at least leave half of me and not replace me entirely with machinery; but, there’s no getting around the fact — my parents (can they still be called that now that I’m no longer a part of my body?) discarded me, replaced me like so much useless trash. So what if I was responsible for occasional episodes of epilepsy; what they did was beyond unacceptable. I mean, the mere fact that I can re-count this event is proof that I am still a part of Siri…still a part of myself. I can still sense and perceive what is happening to Siri’s (my own) body. I am still myself. I was just discarded.

There was Robby being bullied and menaced by a group of boys for the simple (vulgar) reason that he is completely human; here is Siri (am I) observing and not helping. My other half notes how skillful he is at observing. Why is he (am I) just observing? Why don’t I intervene? Why don’t I re-act like an empathic human? Am I not still human? Is my robotic replacement the dominant half of my new self? I mean, I know how he feels. At least, I did. When I was completely human, when I was still apart of myself I would face taunts and mockery because I was baseline. Small price to pay for being (a part of) yourself, though. Small price to pay for being whole and human. What sick world do we live in that intervening in the proper, natural course of nature is seen as normal, while sticking baseline (true) humanity leads to being terrorized and kicked in the ribs?

Siri…I mean, I…I guess I mean, I, eventually intervened. Robby, then said what is perhaps the most important thing my other half has ever been told. He said how, with my replacement, Siri (I) had died; my parents had murdered me; the half (me) that they discarded was an essential part of Siri. Where does that leave my body? Is he (Siri, I) still human? Is anybody still human?

So, I decided to re-write (a portion) of the prologue to Blindsight from the perspective of the half of Siri’s brain that was cut out and replaced. Since we don’t ever get anything in the way of a voice from this discarded half (indeed, it can’t really even be considered a character), I had to invent a little. I acknowledged some key events described in the prologue and then spent a good portion of the post writing a sort of stream-of-conciousness of this replaced half of Siri’s brain. I depicted it (him?) as (understandably) angry, even horrified, at the fact that he was separated from his body. He also questions the state (“humanness”) of humanity with all their modifications.